A Handbook to Agra and the Taj eBook

Akbar spent the rest of his long reign in elaborating
the administrative reforms which have made him famous
as the greatest ruler India has ever had. With
the aid of able ministers, both Hindu and Muhammadan,
he purified the administration of justice, keeping
the supreme control in his own hands; enjoined absolute
tolerance in religious matters; abolished oppressive
taxes, and reorganized and improved the system of
land revenue introduced by Shere Shah. A minute
account of Akbar’s reign, of his policy, habits,
and character, is given in the “Akbar-nama,”
the history written by his devoted friend and Prime
Minister, Abul Fazl. No detail of state affairs
was too small for Akbar’s personal attention.
Ability and integrity were the only passports to his
favour, while bigotry and injustice were anathemas
to him. Like Babar, he was fond of horticulture,
and imported many kinds of fruit trees and flowers
into India. Though he could neither read nor
write, he had a great library of Hindi, Persian, Arabic,
Greek, and other books, and Abul Fazl relates that
every book was read through to him from beginning to
end.

The most remarkable of all this remarkable man’s
intellectual activities were his attempts to bring
about a reconciliation of all the discordant religious
elements of his empire. Badayuni, one of his
contemporary historians, but, unlike him, a bigoted
Musalman, comments thus on Akbar’s religious
views: “From his earliest childhood to
his manhood, and from his manhood to old age, his Majesty
has passed through the most various phases, and through
all sorts of religious practices and sectarian beliefs,
and has collected everything which people can find
in books, with a talent of selection peculiar to him
and a spirit of inquiry opposed to every (Islamite)
principle. Thus a faith based on some elementary
principles traced itself on the mirror of his heart,
and, as the result of all the influences which were
brought to bear on his Majesty, there grew gradually,
as the outline on a stone, the conviction on his heart
that there were sensible men in all religions, and
abstemious thinkers and men endowed with miraculous
powers among all nations. If some true knowledge
were thus everywhere to be found, why should truth
be confined to one religion, or to a creed like Islam,
which was comparatively new, and scarcely a thousand
years old; why should one sect assert what another
denies, and why should one claim a preference without
having superiority conferred upon itself?”

Near to his palace at Fatehpur Sikri he built an Ibadat
Khana, or Hall of Worship, for the discussion of philosophy
and religion. There he received representatives
of all religious sects, Muhammadans, Brahmans, Jains,
Buddhists, Parsis, Jews, and Christians, and listened
attentively to their arguments. He studied deeply
religious books, and had the New Testament translated
into Persian. He also invited Jesuit priests
from Goa, and not only allowed them to build a church